[Exekuhtor]

My advice would be to stay away from too much rolling source / amp gear for now and (further) focus on the headphone journey. Try to hear as much as you can as possible and just cycle through a lot of headphones. The classified is great for that.
Of course, with some hard to drive stuff a beefy amp matters more...

Part of me is afraid of ignoring everything else just because I’m entranced with ZMF

True, but you won't experience new stuff outside of that bubble.

 

[Whazzzup]

Pick a good headphone and focus on source, amp, dac, cabling. That’s all I got 10 years, little churn, no fomo. But collecting stuff is a goal on its own separate from what I tried to do.

 

[theveterans]

Part of me is afraid of ignoring everything else just because I’m entranced with ZMF. It’s easy to become a fanboy. They sound so good and look so pretty while at the same time can be different. Some things you just need to try for yourself. I’m wary of ending up in an echo chamber. There’s so much great stuff out there. FOMO is real. I’m still new enough I’m always wondering what I’m missing.

Appreciate all the responses.

I myself was a detail chaser but extended listening to ZMF headphones many, many times made me appreciate how well they're tuned to tickle our inner audiophile sense: just forget about analyzing mastering faults and just go for an amazing ride. No other headphones outside of HD650 and ETA headphones for me creates that balance of musicality and technicalities besides ZMF. ZMF specializes in plankton enjoyment which to me is an essential requirement to fully satiate our listening experience. Resolution oriented TOTL headphones are harder to get that balance IME since they're more transparent to everything in your chain that you'd end up in a lot of trial and error just to maximize both of their musicality and technicalities.

PS. Can't wait for getting my first ZMF headphone, the Bokeh Open, a perfect complement for my Susvara OG

 

[RTodd]

Back to test tracks, this one.

 

[TheMiddleSky]

Back to test tracks, this one.

I lovee her albums! In this Red one, I quite like to use Some Body and Gun Burial to test audio rig. Beautiful songs to enjoy, but also consist of many good things to "challenge" a set up.

 

[TheAbyss2022]

Got a meet up with a few people, it's like a mini Canjam! This is just all my stuff and there is more coming! I need to move all the headphones to another table lol

 

[goldwerger]

Got a meet up with a few people, it's like a mini Canjam! This is just all my stuff and there is more coming! I need to move all the headphones to another table lol

Love meetups.. enjoy!

Would love to read here impressions from all of you about your meetup and gear..

 

[chrisnyc75]

Speaking of test tracks, I mentioned this new song from Imogen Heap last week.... I had only listened to it on Susvara and Caldera, until this week when I decided to listen to it on Technics AZ80 TWS on my morning commute. I was positively gobsmacked how different it sounded. Not that I expect a TWS to sound anything like Susvara, but I was stunned just HOW different it sounded. Entire layers of the mix were seemingly simply missing, lost in the complex layered production, and what was there just sort of melded into a wash of sound, unlike Sus & Caldera where there are clearly many layers of sounds & textures. If I had listened to this on TWS or a bluetooth speaker first I'm not sure I would have been as mindblown as I was listening to it first on Susvara & Caldera - it's almost like an entirely different song. Imogen is certainly not producing music meant to be listened to on iBuds (or whatever they're called )

Seems like I have a new addition to my standard test track list for testing how well a headphone resolves really dense complex production.

 

[JackarlTwo]

This is a good track to test very deep bass down to 20Hz. Most of the music I listen to don't have that much info at those frequencies, but still fun to test.

 

[theveterans]

This is a good track to test very deep bass down to 20Hz. Most of the music I listen to don't have that much info at those frequencies, but still fun to test.

Thanks for sharing. That track can make any headphone vibrate when cranked up! This is another one that I like to test the bass as well

 

[michael2v]

This is a good track to test very deep bass down to 20Hz. Most of the music I listen to don't have that much info at those frequencies, but still fun to test.

This one gave me goosebumps on the Atrium!

 

[goldwerger]

WE422A rectifier tube, across time

• Right is early production from 1953, grey plates with single D getter
• Left is a late production from 1977, black plates with double O getter.

They are otherwise identically constructed.

 

[chrisnyc75]

WE422A rectifier tube, across time

• Right is early production from 1953, grey plates with single D getter
• Left is a late production from 1977, black plates with double O getter.

They are otherwise identically constructed.

Tube p0rn is the best p0rn.

 

[Aetherhole]

Thanks for sharing. That track can make any headphone vibrate when cranked up! This is another one that I like to test the bass as well

This is currently one of my go-to tracks for sure! It’s also got a decent amount of soundstage and height in the sound, too.

 

[fiascogarcia]

Great test tracks for Bass and Bass timbre!